Musical Aladdin premieres in Seoul in November

“My goal was to make the Genie look human because I wanted to emphasize the ‘bromance’ with Aladdin. That’s why we designed the character to be like a dancing and funny stand-up comedian instead of dressing it up with technology to transform it,” said Casey Niccolo, who directed the Broadway musical ‘Aladdin’ in New York. Tony Award-winning director and choreographer Casey explained the background of the production at a virtual press conference held in Jung-gu Seoul on Tuesday. This session, which was held remotely with the production crew gathered at the New Amsterdam Theater on Broadway, was attended by star composer Alan Menken, who created the original soundtrack for Disney animations such as ‘Aladdin’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ and Anne Quart, executive producer of Disney Theatrical Group.

The musical ‘Aladdin,’ a mega musical based on the Disney animation released in 1992, will premiere in Seoul at the Charlotte Theater in Songpa-gu, Seoul on Nov. 22. Since its premiere in Seattle in 2011, the musical has been performed by 11 production companies around the world, including the U.K., Australia, and Japan, attracting more than 20 million viewers. The Korean performance will be produced by S&CO, which has performed musicals such as ‘Phantom of the Opera’ and ‘The Lion King.’

Viewers can listen to new numbers or numbers arranged to fit the musical. “I added ‘These Palace Walls’ because I thought we needed a new number that focused on Jasmine’s love and relationship. I wrote the basic melody in 45 minutes,” he said. The number ‘Friend Like Me,’ which is two to three minutes long in the movie, was changed to swing jazz-style music that is about eight minutes long. “‘We arranged ‘A Whole New World’ to sound more romantic and sparkly than the original,” said Niccolo.

Thirty-seven cast members participating in the premiere were selected through 10 auditions. The role of Aladdin is played by Kim Jun-su, Seo Kyung-soo, and Park Kang-hyun. Genie is played by Jeong Sung-hwa, Jeong Won-young, and Kang Hong-seok, while Jasmine is performed by Lee Sung-kyung, Min Kyeong-ah, and Choi Ji-hye. Lee Sung-kyung will be acting for the first time on stage through ‘Aladdin.’ “We could see that the performance of Korean actors has grown even stronger, compared to when ‘Beauty and the Beast’ was performed in Korea 20 years ago,” said Quart.


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